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Deion Sanders Erupts After Benches Clearing Fight At Colorado Practice

#College Football
by Last Updated
Deion Sanders watches on during the Colorado football team's spring game.

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A fight broke out during a Colorado football practice this week, leading Deion Sanders to erupt on his players. It wasn’t the benches clearing that had the head coach peeved, however.

Instead, he seemed to be angrier with how certain players responded to seeing their teammates duke it out. Sanders called a few of his guys out as they walked away from the scrum rather than get involved.

The intensity is at a high with the Buffaloes trekking though the grueling dog days of summer. As offseason camp continues, tensions rise. Players are growing tired of squaring off against teammates with eyes set on the season opener.

We saw those tensions come to a head at a recent practice session after a few Buffs got tangled up on a short-yardage situation.

Running back Anthony Hankerson reached the endzone on a handoff, but his offensive linemen took offense to how a defender threw him to the ground after crossing the goal line.

Pushing and shoving ensued as benches cleared.

Sanders responded to the fight with a message for his Colorado football team.

“I seen two of y’all walking off, and you’ve got a key teammate fighting,” Coach Prime said. “Where do they do that at? If one fights, we all fight. Do you understand that? I don’t want to see y’all walking off when somebody’s fighting. Never again!”

While it’s not necessarily encouraged to have fights break out in practice, it’s not uncommon for this time of year. We’ve seen it at the NFL level a number of times this offseason, and Sanders took it as a learning experience for his squad.

He preached that you need to have your teammates’ backs when scrums do occur as he continues to establish a new culture in Boulder.

Buffaloes eager to prove the doubters wrong.

Fights aside, Colorado is looking to improve a football program that went just 1-11 last year. That comes with both talent and attitude. Coach Prime has done his part with his unique approach to the transfer portal, even if he did ruffle feathers along the way.

Now, he’s hoping to set the tone in the locker room.

Sanders has used his status as one of the top NFL players of all-time to bring exposure to the program. Not only did the Buffs see a record-setting Spring Game, but they’ve had some of the sport’s top names stop by this offseason.

That included Terrell Owens, who dropped in to help out at practice this week.

Urban Meyer also made his way to Boulder this summer, and he left overly impressed with the talent on the Colorado roster.

Shedeur Sanders was a name mentioned by the national championship winning coach, and he appears to be in line for a big year if his camp performance is any indication.

DB/WR Travis Hunter was also singled by Meyer after the former Florida coach compared him to Gator great Percy Harvin.

Colorado will need that talent and more if they look to make a quick turnaround in 2023. The Buffs are pegged to be one of college football’s worst teams in the coming year and the schedule is absolutely brutal.

CU will start the season on September 2nd with a trip to play national runner-up TCU. They then host Nebraska in Week 2 before their annual rivalry game versus Colorado State.

The PAC-12 slate isn’t much better as the Buffs open with No. 15 Oregon and No. 6 USC. We’ll see if they can get off to a good start this fall in hopes of proving the doubters wrong.